blacksmithoftheapocalypse

779. Bunch of Dawns

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.94!>

Seth didn't quite know how much time went by but he had crossed 28 bridges and met another two bosses by the time his level went up again. The dungeon also had gone through a peculiar change.

As Seth kept getting lower and lower on the bridges, a dim light started shining in the abyss below and the naming convention of the monsters also changes, with beings like “Cruel Dawn” and “Splendid Dawn” becoming the main cast of...

778. Hard to end

--Theater Dimension--

“Are you lovebirds trying to get in my way or something?” the dungeon god gave the two figures sitting two rows behind him the snake eye. One couldn't see anything but shadows under his hood, but he definitely gave off the aura of giving a disapproving/warning look.

The god couple looked shocked and intimidated, they huddled together but didn't dare say anything. The dies were cast, they couldn't take back what they did.

“Hey, now. You are saying ...

777. At the Bottom

“J-Jess? Are we...alive?” he asked gasping, quickly regretting taking in the horrible air.

“Yes! Yes, we are alive, you big idiot,” she said in a hushed voice, with big tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Urgh, you are hugging me too tightly, I can't breath... maybe that's for the better,” he joked.

“Stop talking, I will help you get out of there. I guess we survived because we fell in all of this loose garbage,” she explained while shoving away the loose, stin...

776. Into the Gap

“That was a surprise.” Lydia sighed when she climbed out from the helmet, covered in blood. The others were also drenched in blood and sweat. The fight was not tiresome, but quite stressful. They were about to return to the top of the stairs when-

“It's too early to relax...” Archer mentioned moments before the others started hearing a rhythmic thumping. Boom, boom, boom, it kept getting louder and louder.

“We should run! It's the doors on the floor above being thrown op...

775. Don't be afraid of the Dark

---Colossal Dungeon---

By the time Lydia and Team 3 had paid a visit to every room on the floor of the giant mansion, two days went by but they all had reached lv.93.  At least it felt like two days for them. After traveling down the whole hallway which ended in a dead end, they turned around and returned to the staircase.

“Should we go up or return downstairs?” Lydia left the choice to her party.

On this floor, they had only met simple colossi and they had come up ...

774. Fungus Knight

---Abyss Bridges---

After crushing the Stoic Twilight, Seth and Tatzel went on a long descent down a spiral staircase. Both had been looking forward to the next floor, but what came next was underwhelming.

“Another bridge?” Seth mumbled, lifting his eyebrows in slight surprise.

Before them appeared another bridge. It led across the same bottomless abyss. They could even see the previous bridge from below, however, they had been unable to see this one from above before. S...

773. Hyphae Hound(3)

“I could try hitting it with <Plague Strike>,” Mina offered after a moment of silence.

<Plague Strike> was the final move of Asclepius' Needle which was able to inflict the target with a deadly disease. Considering that the plague powers of Sekhmet had worked on the Mushroom Fiddler, she suspected that diseases also had to be one of the weaknesses of the fungus beasts.

“Couldn't you just keep slashing at it with your shadow magic to infect it with diseases?” Mi...

772. Hyphae Hound(2)

In quick succession, a strong gale blew around their clothes before a flame shield enveloped the party. Lyxiss had reacted in time to prevent further harm. The stream of spores leaving the hound's throat met the fire shield in a bloom of glowing ember, as the spore cloud burned up

They were still not in the green, as the flame shield shook under the pressure of the breath. Still looking up, they were distracted by a sudden fit of coughing and choking. The half-elf paid a heavy price for...

771. Hyphae Hound

Tekar's shield vanished and a tremendous pressure descended on Monique once the protection was gone. She felt like a fish, as it suddenly became hard to breathe. She came to a halt, as she tried to acclimatize to the sudden change.

“Kuk, what dungeon are you from? Stop disguising as surface dwellers. The natives of this place could never harm our perfect immortal bodies!” the boss exclaimed when he finally got a chance to pause after being driven into a corner.

Not answering, ...

770. Aura of Combat

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.92!>

The gasping party looked at the massive creature they had just felled. Faenys tried her best to regain her breath, looking at the lv.95 Colossus they had just barely managed to kill. If Yulecat's Fur or Seth were present, they may have suspected that this was the place the Maestro had gotten the materials for his colossus creation.

After ascending the staircase to the next floor, they had once again entered an expansive hallway...

769. 7 Bridges..and some more

Fire, Light, and Lightning arrows filled the darkness, as winged creatures resembling harpies with bat wings were shot out of the sky. Seth and Tatzel were standing on a precariously swaying suspension bridge made of brittle wood and rotten rope

They had stepped onto it the very moment they entered this dungeon. Except for the place they were standing on, everything around that was a pitch black darkness. Of course, this didn't stop the two from seeing exactly what place they came to. 2023-04-27 07:10:14 +0000 UTC View Post

768. Mushroom Reef

They had only made several steps into the dungeon when they faced their first enemy. They didn't suddenly appear from around the corner, out from the shadows above them, but they literally broke out from the coral-like mushrooms that surrounded them on all sides.

<Mushroom Fiddler lv.93(Elite)>

Skeletons overgrown by hyphens and sprinkled with mushroom caps released themselves from their moldy surroundings the moment they got close. It was impossible to see them, among the g...

767. A Haze

Monique's Spear flashed past the translucent figure, making absolutely no damage. It was the same for Jonah's first attacks. Physical attacks did not affect these phantoms! Only Shay's water magic, Ray's curses, and Alison's fire magic dealt visible damage.

“You have to use attributed attacks!” Alison called out from behind, but the two vanguards were already far ahead of her.

Monique's spear was covered in divine silver aura, while Jonah was fighting in a storm of blood. The ...

766. Air Marshal

“Do you think anything will change if we go through the doors?”

They had all reached lv.91 some time ago, but the experience gain just became more abysmal.  They might just have slaughtered several hundreds of beasts in their level range but it was like a drop on a hot stone. The difference in the experience bar was barely visible.

There were a lot of monsters, but their levels were unsatisfactory. Not to mention that they did not really pose a challenge. If nothing chang...

765. Golden Goose?

“This place is massive...” Lydia mumbled as they entered the first dungeon they found on the route they chose.

It was incredibly dark. They would have had a hard time seeing what was going on if they didn't each have a kind of night or dark vision. Unlike the gate they used to enter, the hallway behind made them feel like ants.

Compared to the dungeon, the gate was like the hole of a mouse in the wall. Was appeared before them was reminiscent of a hallway in an ancient castle,...

764. Splitting Up

“So far, it's just a normal cave.”

Seth had no experience as a cave explorer, but it reminded him of the time when he would go hiking with his parents in the past. It was a bittersweet memory he had buried so long ago, he thought it forgotten. Now he was here with his friends and significant others.

His assessment was purely based on cave exploration videos he saw on the internet and documentaries he saw on TV. The cave was narrow in some places and very wide in others while w...

763. Toenail Club

“Please wait! Mercy!”

<Dragon Newt Chief lv.99>

Everyone looked stumped at the final boss, who greeted them with a plea for mercy.

“If you kill me I will lose a whole two levels. I will give you anything if you spare me!”

He had a big pompous throne in the back but was kneeling right in front of the door to the boss room, begging them to spare his life. Since everyone looked at him to answer, Seth stepped forward to make a decision. He was not a cruel per...

762. Magma Dungeons

Staying alert, the ordinary Dragon Newts were no problem for the party as they were barely better than the Black Walkers. It was mostly a higher defense. This dungeon had other dragon-themed beasts like Drakes who posed a slightly bigger hurdle.

The pools of lava here were filled with the equivalent of aquatic life but in molten stone. Giant toads and crocodiles that would charge out of the opaque glowing liquid or start spitting molten rock at them without warning.

The dungeon ma...

761. Heinous Villains

Only silence answered until a quiet buzzing broke it.

“Seth?” Monique's voice asked through the communication orb.

“What's up?”

“The wave of monsters suddenly stopped. Is this a new trap?” she asked nervously.

“No! He was just dismayed because we just defeated his big toy!” Fin joined the call.

“Since you mentioned it. I'm sure I can do something better with that,”  The blacksmith mumbled and walked up to the colossus.

“Hey! Wait!...

An official discord?

I tried my hand at making a Discord server. I'm personally not very active on Discord, so I don't know how much use everybody will get out of it, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to have one if people would like to talk about and discuss stuff.

Currently, I thought to make it a public community server, with roles and channels for each tier of Patreon supporters. I'm open for suggestions in the comments if someone is better versed in all things Discord^^

If you are joining, tell me ...

760. Please, can I have some more?

Since they were facing a large group of enemies their formation was rather loose. While Seth lifted Antares and took the role of the tank, protecting Bulko and Lyxiss in the back, while Mike, Mina, and Fin did their thing.

As powerful as the monsters were, Seth felt almost bad when he saw them face off against the chosen and blessed armed with legendary items. Mike turned into his massive lion shape. Swinging his massive flaming sword he could have looked majestic, but the curly horns o...

759. Poison? Resisted.

<You have been poisoned!>

<You have resisted!>

<You have been poisoned!>

<You have resisted!>

“Did everyone drink their Yokulet? This place has some  serious stench.”

Seth joked about a health drink but meant the Higher Antidote potion Alison had developed. It was a potion that was able to give full poison resistance for three hours after intake. It was a strong potion even within the journeyman tier.

Seth had joined Yulecat...

758. All just Weaklings

“How did your dungeon raid go?”

“I don't want to talk about it.”

“I doubt the Naga were a big problem. Did something go wrong?”

“I said, I don't want to talk about it, Link.”

Seth shot the gourmet hunter down and they kept eating in silence. After a moment he sighed.

“Fine. A bunch of stupid dragon newts crushed the original dungeons, meaning I didn't get my hands on the Naga.”

“The dragon newts have already gotten this far?” Link a...

757. Ash Walker

The only reason he came to a halt was that he was thirsty and wanted to check his status. He had eradicated hundreds of dragon newts and not a few of them were lv.90 or above. Especially on the recent floors.

In the corner of his mind, he thought that they would probably make good golems, but currently, Seth just wanted to get rid of his frustration and immerse himself in the sea of flames. It felt like an eternity, that he just led loose and used his favorite power. There were more Dra...

756. Not Soldiers

“Out of the way! “Run! “AAAaaAAH!” “Get out of the way!”

They had just taken their positions when the ground under their feet started quaking and breaking apart. A rumbling roar shook them to the core. Surfacing from right beneath their feet was a giant lion-shaped creature. With many of meaty tassels and a body covered in armor plates, it roared to the sky, standing amid the army of Oathguards.

“Get back in your parties! It's just big, nothing more!” Gus, their gr...

755. In Minas Palan

“As the Tower Master just said, they “salvaged” materials we lost in this tragedy. We have lost a lot of good people in the Holy Land, and I know you are upset, but this was not Minas Mar's fault,” he turned back to Seth.

“I'm glad, that Minas Mar approached us first to offer cooperation in the future. Already having a functioning Teleport Hub will save us a lot of trouble in the future. Of course, we are ready to offer financial support for the right to use it in the future.�...

754. Cozy Home

“You have been hiding this treasure all this time?!”

Leana, followed by Fin barged into the workshop. Seth jumped a little, as he had been focused on the second gauntlet, currently setting the moonstones.

“Are you already done with the tour?” Seth asked a little puzzled.

The princess seemed a little more excited and irritated than he expected. He was pretty sure that Leana had at least some inkling about their magic tower. After all, they were still selling them mana...

753. Lunatic Ithildin

Seth came up to the embassy to look for Leana.

“Seth, you finally show yourself.”

“Ah, sorry, I heard you had arrived, but I wanted to finish something I wanted to show you.”

“Show me?” she asked surprised and quickly caught something he tossed to her.

Looking at the thin in her hands was a fine, almost filigree gauntlet. It was made of a brilliant silver metal and studded with milky gems, that had a blue hue like the sea. Or the...

“Moon Stones?”...

752. Minas Palan

“We really need a name for this tower,” Seth said, after relaying his findings to the others. Since they were all gathered in the room, he thought it was a good moment to bring it up.

“Since you used Minas as tower in Minas Mar, I suggest we call this one also Minas-Something else to keep the naming scheme,” Monique suggested lightheartedly.

Everyone agreed with that sentiment and a heated debate ensued about what kind of tower this was. Evee and Alison advocated for “Mi...

751. Tower Foundations

Seth stared in awe at the result of Evee's undead slaving away for weeks. She called it the foundation of a magic tower, but from above it looked more like she was growing a citadel of doom. The mentioned “foundation of the tower” was a star fort built from black granite. Similar to Minas Mar, it was built half into the mountain wall, with five points of the star pointing towards the canyon in the distance.

There was a second, even higher, wall, parallel to the outer walls, and in i...